Which Batman Miniseries Should I Get?: Orpheus Rising or Family?

[Timothy Hunter]

I'm in the midst of reading through the early 2000s Batman titles and I wondering if I should get Batman Family or Batman Orpheus Rising. Batman Family deals with the aftermath of Bruce Wayne Murderer, while Batman Orpheus rising introduces Orpheus who went on to appear in the War Games crossover between the Batman titles.

Which is more important to continuity and which is the better miniseries?

[bob.schoonover]

Batman Family is not important to future continuity at all. I enjoyed it, though - it's just a straightforward "here's a new villain attacking Batman and his family" story, but well executed. Orpheus Rising is important to War Games to establish who Orpheus is, although I think, without spoiling too much, you could read War Games just fine w/o reading OR.

I wouldn't say you'd need to go out of your way to read either story, nor should you feel obligated to read them from a "must understand everything" standpoint. If you're only going to read one, Orpheus Rising will do more for your read-through than Batman Family

[Timothy Hunter]

Batman Family is not important to future continuity at all. I enjoyed it, though - it's just a straightforward "here's a new villain attacking Batman and his family" story, but well executed. Orpheus Rising is important to War Games to establish who Orpheus is, although I think, without spoiling too much, you could read War Games just fine w/o reading OR.

I wouldn't say you'd need to go out of your way to read either story, nor should you feel obligated to read them from a "must understand everything" standpoint. If you're only going to read one, Orpheus Rising will do more for your read-through than Batman Family

I've read War Games, so I'm aware of Orpheus's fate.

[bob.schoonover]

I've read War Games, so I'm aware of Orpheus's fate.

Good to know. Since you're aware of that, I'll expand a bit to say I don't think anything in OR suggests anything about that fate or adds color to it. It doesn't contextualize it in any way, and I think (w/o knowing for sure) that whatever the original intention was for Orpheus, it was never properly realized. Which makes it hard to recommend Orpheus Rising as anything other than a little side note in the Batman Universe

[Tsukiakari1203]

Orpheus Rising! I love the mini

[Celgress]

Orpheus Rising, it is the better of the pair (although both are solid), IMO.